Merch Planner - Sporting Goods, Team Sports

Target • Minneapolis, MN

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

Target is an iconic brand, a Fortune 50 company and one of America’s leading retailers. Target Merchandising is evolving at an incredible pace. We are constantly reimagining how this $100 billion retailer offers the innovative, guest-inspiring items that Target is known and loved for. Our goal is to deliver exceptional value, quality and style to elevate Target as the premier retailer in a competitive global marketplace. Through intelligent and progressive business strategies that make the most of Target’s resources and partnerships worldwide, Merchandising works across product categories to create a localized shopping experience online and in our 1800 stores. A role in Planning means being in charge of the financials and forecasting for one of Target’s businesses. Here, you’ll conduct comparative analysis of holiday or other seasonal performance reports and provide the insights that inform the Inventory team’s work to ensure that product supports projected sales. Acting as the hub between Merchandising and Supply Chain, you will create a financial link between these two essential groups and have a voice in some of the most important decisions from a financial strategy standpoint. As a Merchandise Planner, you’ll provide in-season decision support, collaborate on assortment planning, recommend localization and channel strategies including cluster types and profiles, and lead demand forecasting. You’ll support the divisional strategy through your category expertise and partnerships with cross-functional teams and vendors. You will head up the open-to-buy process and decide on category-level investment and the financial validity of assortments. You will conduct root cause analysis for variation between supply and demand forecasts to support “chase-cancel” decisions and communicate implications to vendors. You’ll conduct scenario planning, build unit plans, and lead initial set planning and operationalization to optimize assortments. A large part of your role will be to interpret forecast results and conduct “what if?” analysis to guide your go-forward recommendations. You will validate the unit promo planning forecast, drive maintenance, risk analysis and decision-making by the Pricing & Promotion Center of Excellence. And you’ll run event forecast creation and flow, analyzing item lifecycles and driving recommendations on end-of-season management. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.

Requirements

• Four-year degree or equivalent experience
• 2-6 years of relevant experience
• Strong strategic, financial, and analytical skills; can easily translate data from an array of sources into insights and recommendations
• Strong collaboration skills to partner with cross-functional teams
• Flexible, resilient and comfortable working in “grey areas” that are constantly changing

Nice To Haves

• Previous Planning or Buying experience preferred
• Strong digital acumen preferred
• Owned Brand experience preferred
• Demonstrated commitment to diversity and inclusion

Responsibilities

• Conduct comparative analysis of holiday or other seasonal performance reports and provide insights to inform the Inventory team’s work.
• Create a financial link between Merchandising and Supply Chain.
• Provide in-season decision support.
• Collaborate on assortment planning.
• Recommend localization and channel strategies including cluster types and profiles.
• Lead demand forecasting.
• Support the divisional strategy through category expertise and partnerships with cross-functional teams and vendors.
• Head up the open-to-buy process and decide on category-level investment and the financial validity of assortments.
• Conduct root cause analysis for variation between supply and demand forecasts to support “chase-cancel” decisions and communicate implications to vendors.
• Conduct scenario planning, build unit plans, and lead initial set planning and operationalization to optimize assortments.
• Interpret forecast results and conduct “what if?” analysis to guide go-forward recommendations.
• Validate the unit promo planning forecast, drive maintenance, risk analysis and decision-making by the Pricing & Promotion Center of Excellence.
• Run event forecast creation and flow, analyzing item lifecycles and driving recommendations on end-of-season management.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health benefits and programs (medical, vision, dental, life insurance)
• 401(k)
• Employee discount
• Short term disability
• Long term disability
• Paid sick leave
• Paid national holidays
• Paid vacation

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Associate degree